Back in July, fans of the San Diego Padres gathered at Petco Park as they hoped to break the world record for the longest costumed dog parade as part of the organization’s annual Dog Days of Summer promotion, which allows fans to bring their pooches to the ballpark. Not only did they end up setting the world record, but they created a new sensation for dog owners across the country. For some reason, people really want to break the record for most costumed dogs in a parade.
Dog owners in Cleveland made their best effort this past weekend and they unfortunately fell short. Hell, a guy in Pittsburgh even tried to set the individual record for most dogs walked. Alas, there is controversy in this canine competition, as a Long Beach, CA man believes that he has already bested the Petco effort and will gladly do it again.

Justin Rudd, who organizes the event through his nonprofit organization, said he saw an item where the official record of 337 was set earlier this year in a sponsored event at Petco Park in San Diego.
“I said, ‘What?’ We’ve done twice that,” Rudd said.
“I’ll round up 400 dogs myself and put bandanas on them,” he added with a laugh.
(Via the Press-Telegram)

With a laugh? There’s nothing funny about cheating. Especially not in costumed dog parade world records, which might be the only pure competition we have left on this planet.
Thankfully, over the weekend, dog owners gathered in Tompkins Square Park in New York City for their annual Halloween dog parade, hoping to shatter the Petco record the right way. Unfortunately, they failed. Some people are blaming the Occupy Wall Street movement, as protesters threatened to take over Tompkins Park a week earlier, but I like to think that San Diego just set the bar much higher.
Regardless, it was an incredible effort by the New York City faithful, so today we celebrate the best of the Tompkins Square Park pooch parade.
(Images via and hat tips to The Stir, DNA Info, and Gothamist.)